As for Obama: it’s sad to say but he may be the ultimate example of all that can be profoundly wrong with Affirmative Action. Yes, Obama is the Affirmative Action President/Nobel Peace Prize recipient. There, I said it. Let the accusations of hate and racism fly.

But we all know the speech He’ll make will have at least one first person pronoun in every other sentence.

All praise He who is called The One

Regarding Floyd’s post, my mother believes in humility above all. She raised me to never accept any gift, compliment, help… If one of my grandparents gave me a quarter to buy an ice cream she would make me try to return it, “No, grandpa, you shouldn’t do this…” It was that way with everything. One day my father pulled me aside and said, “You’re insulting your grandfather. He worked on the railroad over 40 years to earn his money and he wants to use it to buy you an ice cream cone. You’re his grandson and buying you an ice cream makes him happy. Take the quarter, thank him and buy an ice cream cone and enjoy it.” That made sense to me and from then on I got much better about accepting gifts.

When I was a teen I still couldn’t accept compliments. Someone would say I did a great job in a football game… “Oh, the line did such a good job opening holes you could drive a truck through them. I was just the guy who happened to be carrying the ball, etc…” Someone would say a girl thought I was cute… “Oh, she’s just saying that to be nice. She probably really wants to date so and so, etc…” Then I read an article from Ann Landers about about how to accept compliments. She said a simple “thank you” is almost always best. Don’t make the person feel dumb or wrong for stating the compliment. They believe what they said. Thank them for taking the time to say it.

In this Bible passage I see Jesus doing the same. As you write, Floyd, “I am who (that) I am.” Or, as we Catholics pray, “it is right to give Him thanks and praise.”

I once had an expert in child rearing advise me that I should not tell my kids they have made me proud. His point was that kids should do things for their own, or others’ benefit, but not be motivated by making their parents proud. I saw his point, but I still do it. My theory is kids are sometimes motivated by making their parents proud and I am not embarrassed to tell them when they make me proud. Also, there are times when they flat out impress me as human beings, beyond being my children. There are times when they do things that are exceptional and I’m not shy about letting them know, “Hey, that piano piece you played, that was really something. Even if I had lessons at your age I don’t think I could have achieved that.” “Hey, that was great when you told your friend that she shouldn’t disobey her mother. When I was your age I don’t think I would have had the courage to say that to a friend, and that’s a real sign of friendship…” “Wow! I can’t even understand how you could draw a cartoon like that. I can barely draw a stickman! That is wonderful!”

I don’t overdo it. If my kid does something a normal kid his or her age should do, or he or she is pulling their weight in the family he or she will not get praise from me; that’s just what you do. But, I do take time to praise the exceptional. And when they get a dollar from their grandpa to buy ice cream I tell them their grandpa worked hard for 30 years as a security guard so one day he’d have money to buy his grandkids ice cream and they ought to thank him and run and buy an ice cream cone and enjoy it!